. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
WT/ACC/RUS/61 
12 August 2011 
 (11-4048) 
Working Party on the 
Accession of the Russian Federation Original:   English 
 
 
 
ACCESSION OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION 
 
Communication from Georgia 
 
Letter from Ambassador H.E. Zurab TCHIABERASHVILI 
 
 
 The following communication, dated 11 August 2011, addressed to the Director of the Accessions Division, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of Georgia. 
 
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  I have the honor to request the Accessions Division of the World Trade Organization to distribute a Statement of the Government of Georgia to the Members of the Working Party on the 
Accession of the Russian Federation to the WTO. 
  As you may be aware, the latest round of bilateral negotiations between Georgia and the 
Russian Federation, with the mediation of the Swi ss Confederation, took place on 9-10 August 2011.  
In light of those negotiations, as well as other releva nt developments, as described in the statement, 
Georgia deems it necessary to communicate to the Members of the Working Party Georgia's position 
on the bilateral negotiation process.      
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Statement by Georgia to the Members of the Working Party on the Accession of the 
Russian Federation to the WTO. 
 
 With regard to the bilateral negotiation pr ocess between Georgia and the Russian Federation 
on the subject of accession of the Russian Federati on to the WTO, Georgia states the following: 
  Since March 2011 Georgia has been actively re -engaged in bilateral negotiations, with the 
Russian Federation under the mediation of Switzerla nd.  The purpose of bilateral negotiations, which 
had been interrupted in 2008, has been and still re mains to find a negotiated solution to the request 
raised by the Georgian side, namely the problem of unregulated trade through check-points of 
Gantiadi-Adler and Roki-Nijni Zaramag between the customs te rritories of Georgia and the 
Russian Federation.   Georgia seeks to find a bilaterally acceptable WTO consistent mechanism of customs administration and monitoring of trade flows between  Georgia and the Russian Federation to resolve 
the aforementioned issue. 
 WT/ACC/RUS/61 
Page 2  
 
   It should be emphasized that throughout the negotiation process Georgia has remained 
committed to the process and has continued to be actively engaged.  Notw ithstanding the extremely 
sensitive political context of the Georgian-Russian political relations and absence of diplomatic 
relations between the sides, Georgia has always sought  to find a technical, trade related solution to the 
problem of unregulated trade. 
 
 To the dismay of Georgia, the Russian Federati on has so far refused to satisfy any of the key 
elements of Georgia's request.  Therefore, bila teral negotiations have not yet resulted in any 
deliverable whatsoever.  
 Moreover, the recent developments descr ibed below cast serious doubts on Russia's 
willingness to arrive to a solution regarding the issue of customs administration and monitoring of trade flows.  On 28 July 2011, President of the Russian Federation, Dimitri Medvedev, introduced a 
customs agreement with Abkhazia, Georgia to the Russian State Duma for ratification.  
On 19 July 2011, the so-called Inter-Governmental  Commission of Russia and South Ossetia, Georgia 
met in Akhalgori, a Georgian city occupied by the Russian Federation, and agreed to facilitate trade in 
goods between Russia and South Ossetia, Georgia.   The Georgian side condemns such actions by the Russian Federation and is confident that 
these actions neither contribute to th e creation of trust between the sid es nor help to find a negotiated 
outcome in the bilateral process on Russia's WTO accession. 
 
 Despite Georgia's continued willingness to e ngage constructively and find a bilaterally 
acceptable solution to the issue at stake, the Russian side is politicizing the process of negotiations 
through the above mentioned actions.  Under these circumstances it becomes extremely difficult to maintain realistic hope to achieve any substan tive result in the Georgian-Russian negotiations. 
 
 Georgia hopes that the Russian Federation will re-engage constructivel y in the negotiations 
with Georgia.  Georgia would like to reiterate it s readiness to continue result-oriented constructive 
negotiations with the Russian Federation in a tran sparent manner with the aim of arriving at a 
bilaterally acceptable WTO consistent solu tion to the problem raised by Georgia. 
  
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